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Margate (GE)

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Margate (GE) 15/05/2020 at 20:41 #126835
TUT
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Long shot number two, but since it went so well last time, I hope you'll forgive me.

I've been looking into the old signalling on the Kent Coast a little bit, some beautiful and impressive old Southern Railway (and constituent company) boxes like Ramsgate and Gillingham that lasted until quite recently.

But when it comes to Margate signal box, which they tell me was a great old signal box with a full 80 levers, I keep drawing a blank! There's a really fantastic snap on Flickr of one of the fringe boxes, Ramsgate:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5835300595/

But I can't find anything at all showing Margate.

Even the relevant southern region signal instruction from the time of the electrification and multi-aspect signalling is sadly missing from the SRS collection. 9 SED 1959 and 11 SED 1959 are there (although 11 is not available online), but 10, which covered Margate, is missing.

https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/archivesignals/brsr.php

That's a bit of a shame because, among many more important reasons, I gather Network Rail - or maybe RailTrack - decided to renumber some (although I think not all) of the Axxx automatic signals under Margate's supervision to GExx, which I can't find any information about.

So I was just wondering and hoping whether anybody here might be able to give me any suggestions of where I could start looking to find out more.

Many thanks as always.

Last edited: 15/05/2020 at 20:42 by TUT
Reason: None given

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Margate (GE) 15/05/2020 at 21:23 #126836
northroad
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Have you tried the website. signal box.org under Margate history and a few pics including the lever frame

Geoff

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Margate (GE) 15/05/2020 at 21:40 #126837
TUT
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That is very very helpful northroad, thank you very much. How did I miss a page like that? Those are some excellent pictures.

So what do we have going on here? Clearly it's not quite possible to see such details as signal numbers, but there are some really great clues. So you've got an automatic signal on the Up Main before Dumpton Park. That will obviously be A227 shown on the Ramsgate diagram. After that we have A225, platform starting signal at Dumpton Park. I'm very certain that that is A225 because the number is fairly easy to make out on the Video125 diagram and the numbering of Southern Region A signals was gloriously straightforward for the most part. They do tend to count down in 2s. After that we have the signal between Dumpton Park and Broadstairs and the platform starting signal at Broadstairs which is GE52. I know it is GE52 because you can read the number of the banner repeater mounted on the platform canopy in this picture:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kpmarek/4040049950/

The signal between Dumpton Park and Broadstairs looks like it's numbered GE53. Now these two signals are of some interest to me, because the ID plate of GE53 seems to be the ID plate of an automatic signal and GE52 is probably plated semi-auto, but it's hard to tell. Now you see I thought I was a clever clogs and I thought Axxx signals had been renumbered, but it appears not. These signals are clearly shown on this older diagram as controlled signals. Was there perhaps a ground frame or something at Broadstairs that has since been removed? Does anyone have more details?

Thanks a lot northroad! Great pics!

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Margate (GE) 15/05/2020 at 23:25 #126839
jc92
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I suspect you're right. Broadstairs had a goods yard on the up side margate end of the station which survived the electrification scheme and then closed around 67. It's likely this was a ground frame released by Margate although I can't find a diagram that old.
"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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